JET court’s future remains uncertain

First District Judge Benjamin Simpson figures the juvenile drug court over which he presides is saving Kootenai County $365,726 this year.

Commissioners might cheer if the windfall was obvious in the county budget. But the 14 spaces in the Juvenile Detention Center that the drug program’s Juvenile Education and Training – JET – court emptied were filled immediately by other young lawbreakers. The detention center’s average daily population is 5 percent higher than last year when the average daily population was 5 percent higher than the year before.

“Do you see an end to the problem?” Commissioner Dick Panabaker asked Simpson at a recent meeting about the JET court’s future.

Not really, the judge answered, but JET court could slow it down considerably, which is the message Simpson and JET court coordinator Marina Kalani want commissioners to understand and support. The federal grant that started Kootenai County’s JET court two years ago expires next April. Kalani intends to convince sponsors, businesses and civic organizations to keep the program going.

Kids who go through the rigorous court circumvent costly detention, typically finish school, free themselves of drugs and rarely reoffend.

“Big employers have a vested interest in a drug-free employee field,” Simpson said.

But courting enough sponsors will take time. Kalani is asking the commissioners to find $76,774 in next year’s county budget to help the JET court during the first year on its own.

“We have to cut $2 million from the budget to make it (the budget) work,” Panabaker told her. Concern and frustration darkened his eyes and he sighed. “But if you save one life, how do you put a dollar value on that, or on turning a person into a useful citizen?”

JET court operates on $180,000 a year now. The $76,774 Kalani is seeking from the county would cover half her salary and half the salary of a juvenile probation officer plus direct $36,000 to treatment for the young offenders in the program. Simpson and the other 15 criminal justice workers, counselors and attorneys donate their time to JET. Simpson donates dozens of extra hours a month to the program.

Since November 2002, 39 kids have gone through JET court’s yearlong program. Ten have met all the requirements and graduated. They also either earned their high school diplomas or GEDs – general equivalency diplomas. Thirteen had to leave the program. Either their treatment costs exceeded the JET budget or they reoffended. Sixteen are still in the program.

A three-year grant from the Department of Justice launched JET. Juvenile drug courts began with the idea that kids-gone-wrong need to learn the respect and self-esteem law-abiding people experience. As they earn approval, the theory goes, most kids will change their ways.

JET court accepts kids facing drug charges if they have no history of violence or sexual crimes. Prosecutors offer JET as an alternative to jail time.

Only one graduate has reoffended so far. Of the kids bounced from the program, four are facing new charges. One graduate earned his welding certificate and now trains others. Another graduate enrolled in a nursing program and left a past of methamphetamine use, molestation and drug-using parents behind her.

“She turned herself around,” Simpson told commissioners. “At our picnic over the weekend, four parents came up to say, ‘God bless you. My kid would be dead or in prison without you.’ ”

Commissioners don’t argue JET court’s importance. It costs $125 a day per kid at the Juvenile Detention Center, and the likelihood of those kids breaking the law again after release is high. It costs $3,000 per kid for JET court. The kids in JET court now represent 3,540 detention days, which would cost the county $442,500. If the county helps keep JET court alive, it would pay only the $76,774 for which Kalani is asking – a savings of $365,726.

Except that other kids will fill the detention center and the county won’t notice any savings. And other important programs are losing grants and need help from the county.

“A domestic violence grant is also folding. We’ll have to make a choice,” Commissioner Gus Johnson told Kalani and Simpson. “Which is a bigger problem?”

Federal money for the county’s family violence victim advocate runs out Sept. 30. The advocate helps victims find resources and get protection orders. Prosecutor Bill Douglas is asking commissioners for $40,000 to keep that position. He’s also behind JET court, for which he volunteers regularly.

“Why should we have to choose between two essential programs?” Douglas said. “These are not problems that are going away.”

Simpson sees both drugs and domestic violence cases in his courtroom constantly. Substance abuse is behind 90 percent of domestic violence. Continue JET court and fewer kids will grow into substance-abusing adults, which should reduce the incidences of domestic violence in the future, he said.

While Kalani waits for word from the commissioners, she’ll visit potential sponsors and plan fund-raisers. She’s a dynamic singer with Mariah Carey range and has no hesitation about using her voice to raise money for JET court. She and attorney Tim Van Valin, another musician, plan a western hoedown sometime this summer.

“There’s a high probability of getting private funds to support the program,” Simpson told commissioners, who worried that JET court needs the county permanently to absorb it into its budget. “I don’t think we’ll ask you for a dime next year.”

Commissioners will vote on next year’s budget in late summer.